Do your work justice with well-designed, professional conference talk slides
Deliver a talk so good that attendees can’t help but approach you to tell you “That was the best talk I’ve ever seen!”
1,000+ individuals in STEM, academia, and evaluation have taken my professional development training online course, training workshop, or worked with me 1:1.
Additional reviews and testimonials can be found in my LinkedIn profile.
Hi! I’m Dr. Echo Rivera 👋
This is a chance for you to make a name for yourself.
…Make networking easy (because people will approach YOU) / Expand your professional network.
…Find collaborators.
…Get your research used.
…Build your reputation
…Do your work justice.
Surface to deeper (order)
Working with a presentation specialist (who has a PhD and has given 20+ academic/research conference talks) will calm those nerves so you can deliver a talk with professional, impressive slides that you’re proud of (and are so good can use them again for yet another conference or invited talk 😉).
The “Last Lap” Session
You’re almost there! I’ll help get you across the finish line 🏁
90-minutes together on Zoom
90-minutes of my review/design time before our session (I will review/edit your draft slide deck)
$600 for 3 hours of support
Perfect if you:
Already have* ~ 80% or more of your conference talk slide deck drafted; AND
Just need some help with refining some tricky parts of your script or sprucing up some slides / data visualizations.
*or will have by the time we meet.
The “It’s OK to Stop Running” Package
You have other things to do. I’ll handle the design for you 💅
8-16 hours of my independent design time where I create or overhaul your slides and data visualizations (quant & qual ok)
Most conference talks can be completed within 2 days of work, and additional hours can be purchased
~2-4 weeks turnaround time (shorter timeframes may be ok)
Exact price depends on complexity, but you’ll always know what to expect before we begin
$1,600 - $3,200 for 8-16 hours of support
Perfect if you:
Are giving a talk that is 45 minutes or less; AND either:
Have a written script (word for word what you want to say), and want me to create the slide deck from that; OR…
Have a complete draft of the slide deck, but want an overhaul on the designs and data visualizations.
How we will approach your conference talks
Stand out among the sea of other presenters so you can expand your network for the future.
This is quite different than what most people assume a conference talk is for. Many of my clients initially approach a conference talk thinking it’s about:
Proving the quality of your study.
Establishing yourself as a competent researcher/academic/professional.
Getting feedback about your study from peers to improve it.
😅 yeah, maybe back in 1920 when “conferences” were just a bunch of men who had few other responsibilities and enough time to sit around smoking cigars, bloviating to each other for days (at least, that’s how I imagine it).
Either way, with a modern conference talk, we’re presenting to an exhausted, jet-lagged audience of professionals who have a million responsibilities they’re juggling. They’re:
hungry (due to the abysmal box lunches),
overstimulated (too much noise, and omg the lights), and
stressed over how much this conference is costing them and/or how behind they’re getting at work.
That means your conference talk attendees are more in “scanning” mode rather than in “deep learning” mode—especially if they’ve already taken a pre-conference workshop and spent their last burst of energy on that.
In the modern era, here’s what a conference is REALLY about:
Finding your people — others who want to read, cite, and maybe even collaborate with.
Gaining practice with effective communication and public speaking.
Get your research out there so more people read and cite it.
In other words, the primary goal of a conference is to build your network. Sure, the opportunity to prove your competence and getting feedback are of course possible, and a bonus of the conference environment.
Visually-engaging, well-polished talks make “networking” easy.
If the idea of networking makes you want to wretch, you’re not alone. But sadly, a strong network is the not-so-hidden secret to success in literally any career. Rather than avoid networking, you can use your conference talk as an opportunity to make networking easier.
We don’t need to change the conference talk formula. We typically use a standard structure that people expect:
introduction/literature review,
research questions/hypotheses,
method,
results,
discussion/implications/limitations
But what we shift is the slide design. Specifically, we shift from SAD (Standard Academic Delivery) style of presenting information into a visually-engaging, well-polished talk.
We shift from slides that are boring and forgettable into slides that are so good people can’t help but approach you to tell you how good your talk was.
When people approach you (rather than you awkwardly approaching them), already impressed by both your work and communication skills…that’s 90% of the networking.
All you have to do is graciously accept them compliment, and follow up with “Tell me more about your research” and “Let’s stay connected.”
We shift from slides that are boring and forgettable to slides that are so good people can’t help but approach you to tell you how good your talk was.
Before my shift into starting this communications company, I created and delivered at over 20 conference talks at academic, researcher, and evaluation conferences.
I still remember my very first conference talk—a roundtable at the Midwest Ecological Conference. It was part of the project my senior thesis was from and the whole team was there. But, I was still so nervous!
Because I started working on my slide design and storytelling skills in undergrad, by the time I was in grad school giving conference talks, I predictably and reliably had at least a couple people stay afterwards to tell me things like:
That presentation was amazing.
It led to: a book chapter
freelance report design
By the time I gave my last conference talk, though? Piece of cake. And, predictably, it led to an expanded network.
Dr. Selameab was burned out and had a lot on her plate, but she needed to get her dissertation slides done, fast.
See what we accomplished in just one intensive.
Want to see me redesign a few presentation slides?
This 10 minute makeover video shows some before/after redesigns. Every client is different, but we should have no problem doing something of this scope (and likely even more) during just one session together.
My slide portfolio has more examples of visually engaging presentation slides for academic settings.
Ready to work together?
Let’s make your conference talk a celebratory, joyful experience that you will look back upon warmly as a capstone performance that positively summed up your years of tears, sleepless nights, and hard work as a graduate student.
…or…have a question first?
Send me a quick email using this form.
